In the past, wagering gaming devices such as slot machines were all configured to accept coins as the basis for a player's wager and were configured to dispense coins as winning payouts or as a cash-out to the player. However, this required players and casinos to handle large amounts of coins and required the slot machines to have complex, expensive and space-occupying coin handling apparatus such as coin acceptors, coin storage and coin dispending apparatus. To address these problems, coin-less and/or entirely cashless gaming systems and gaming machines were developed. In coin-less gaming systems, gaming machines may be configured to accept paper currency as well as accept and dispense paper or similar tickets. In cashless systems, the gaming machines may only be configured to accept and dispense cash tickets.
The tickets used in these “ticket” based gaming systems and gaming machines have associated monetary or cash value and may thus be referred to as cash tickets. Each ticket may have a bar code or other information which identifies the ticket and/or its value, such as for use in validating the ticket when it is later presented by the patron. Such a ticketing system and associated tickets are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,269 to Burns which is incorporated into this application by reference in its entirety.
Relative to these newer “ticket” based systems, a patron can access on-property kiosk and ATM devices to access money from their bank in the form of ATM, check, credit and debit transactions. The patron may obtain this money out of a cash machine such as a Global Cash Access (GCA) ATM product or any number of other GCA devices for use in casinos such as GCA's CasinoCashPlus product or a GCA kiosk. Once the patron's monetary transaction has been approved by the bank or other financial institution, the patron may receive their withdrawal in the form of cash or ticket. When the patron chooses to select the ticket option, a cash ticket is generated. Alternatively, the player may withdraw funds with the aid of a casino cage cashier or provide monetary funds to that cashier and exchange the withdrawn or provided funds for a cash ticket.
The patron may present their cash ticket at a gaming machine or other device that accepts such cash tickets within the casino that issued the ticket or at related casinos in the case of a multi-casino operation. The cash ticket is validated by the particular casino then redeemed and the patron receives his or her cash in the form of credits automatically configured onto the gaming machine or gaming device.
Such traditional ticket validation in a particular casino requires the use of a computer network within the casino along with system components that are approved by the gaming regulatory agencies within which each casino or casino enterprise operates. New features rolled out to this form of a gaming system within the casino requires extensive coordination between vendors along with time consuming jurisdictional approvals and training of casino staff and patrons. Because there is a need to rapidly develop and deploy new patron-desirable features within a casino, it is preferable to have a system where core modifications to existing casino systems are not required.
Traditionally, casinos have sent marketing materials to patrons via direct mail in order to motivate or entice them to travel to the casino and engage in game play or purchase other goods or services. With the popularity of the Internet, these direct mail promotions evolved into Internet communicated promotions or advertising events, such as offers of products or services by a particular casino which are and targeted to specific patrons or groups of patrons based on their demographics or psychographic data.
Now casino-style gaming machine manufacturers are introducing patron services that can be played, viewed or interacted with on-line, such as at a player's home on their personal computer via the Internet. These manufacturers allow patrons to play the manufacturer's specific casino games at home for free in order to get the patron familiar with the manufacturer's game offering and may present other opportunities to the patron to motivate them to visit a particular casino to play the manufacturer's gaming machines. However, there remains a need to integrate patron activities associated with home computer use and social networking with activities and promotions driving physical casino visitation.